Kennedy Square eBook

Kate looked at him with lowered lids, her lips curling
slightly, but she did not defend the culprit.
It was only one of what Prim called his “jokes:”
he was the last man in the world to wish any such punishment.
Moreover, she knew her father much better than the
Honorable Prim knew his daughter, and whenever she
had a favor to ask was invariably careful not to let
his little tea-kettle boil over.

“Only a short time ago, father, you got a berth
as supercargo on one of my grandfather’s ships
for Mark Gilbert. Can’t you do it for Harry?”

“But, Kate, that was quite a different thing.
Mark’s father came to me and asked it as a special
favor.” His assumed authority at the shipping
office rarely extended to the appointing of officers—­not
when the younger partners objected.

“Well, Harry’s father won’t come
to you, nor will Harry; and it isn’t a different
thing. It’s exactly the same thing so far
as you are concerned, and there is a greater reason
for Harry, for he is alone in the world and he is
not used to hard work of any kind, and it is cruel
to make a common sailor of him.”

“Why, I thought Temple was fathering him.”

“So Uncle George has, and would always look
after him, but Harry is too brave and manly to live
upon him any longer, now that Uncle George has lost
most of his money. Will you see Mr. Pendergast,
or shall I go down to the office?”

Prim mused for a moment. “There may not
be a vacancy,” he ventured, “but I will
inquire. The Ranger sails on Friday for the River
Plate, and I will have Mr. Pendergast come and see
me. Supercargoes are of very little use, my dear,
unless they have had some business training, and this
young man, of course, has had none at all.”

“This young man, indeed!” thought Kate
with a sigh, stifling her indignation. “Poor
Harry!—­no one need treat him any longer
with even common courtesy, now that St. George, his
last hold, had been swept away.”

“I think on the whole I had better attend to
it myself,” she added with some impatience.
“I don’t want anything to go wrong about
it.”

“No, I’ll see him, Kate; just leave it
all to me.”

He had already decided what to do—­or what
he would try to do—­when he first heard
the boy wanted to leave the country. What troubled
him was what the managing partner of the line might
think of the proposition. As long as Harry remained
at home and within reach any number of things might
happen—­even a return of the old love.
With the scapegrace half-way around the world some
other man might have a chance—­Willits,
especially, who had proved himself in every way worthy
of his daughter, and who would soon be one of the
leading lawyers of the State if he kept on.